IWT6 Topic Poll (for prospective participants)

[apotheosis]

I don't mean to be a douche-bag. But I may not participate if Myth wins.
I definitely will though if Infinite Story wins.

[Hi! My name is: Katie]

I have an alternative suggestion... since we are considering including CYSers this contest, we might take a page from their book and not have a theme. Or our theme could be "Choose Your Own Theme." That seems like a happy compromise.

[End Master]

Nah, as much as I don't mind CYS joining in, this is still primarily an IS Contest and we have themes. So we need to stick to whatever theme is picked/chosen this year.

[Usoki]

We need to have a theme, if anything because grading will be impossible if it's a bunch of people using opinions to grade different opinions. There needs to be a rubric, or there's no point in calling it a contest. If we have no theme, it might as well be a "Hey, let's just everybody write something" event. Which, in theory, is what we're doing all the time anyway, what with this being a writing site and all.

I won't lie- I will be a bit disappointed when/if the Infinite theme loses. But, there is nothing saying it can never make a return- and like Locke pointed out, it might be better to hold off until IS2 is created. Because, as End pointed out, the linking system as it exists now is a bit...awkward to work with. It's certainly doable, but IS2 might make it that much more awesome.

[xnull]

It's funny. When I posted "Myth" as an option I was just making stuffing for the number of options we had available. I thought other people would do the same and we would narrow it down to the good few and then vote.

In retrospect I regret putting down "Myth" a bit.

But since myth will probably be chosen, I'll bite my tongue from this point on. The majority of users seem to like my filler idea, so I'll run with it. I have a great idea for the utopia theme, but I'm also split between working on 2023/Serial Rapist/Myth/Robotics for the next umpteen hours. Again... I wish I could do them all.

I'll probably enter no matter what topic wins this competition. It's a question of how much time I'll devote to finishing the piece before the end (one of my very, very bad habits).

Just letting you bitches know that if you choose myth I'm still in for the competition despite wanting to do so many other things instead. Perhaps I'll find a way to merge my Utopia idea with a myth (although I really, really doubt it). Actually, the main reason I wanted to do Utopia was to hear what each members' Utopia would be like. I think it's an essential component of any Utopia that there be some chaos and uncertainty. It just simply isn't Utopian if there isn't conflict!

Blathers.

That rant wasn't well structured.

[JJJ-thebanisher]

OK, just for some finality and clarity. CYS entrants can post their stories on CYS but can't use any features that don't occur over here? Like Variables, Scripting or items? Right?

EDIT: I am still a little confused though, if extra features do not improve the product, why are they illegal on the basis that it's unfair? Regardless, it's your rules.

[donteatpoop]

OK, just for some finality and clarity. CYS entrants can post their stories on CYS but can't use any features that don't occur over here? Like Variables, Scripting or items? Right?

EDIT: I am still a little confused though, if extra features do not improve the product, why are they illegal on the basis that it's unfair? Regardless, it's your rules.

Because instead of saying "it's our fucking contest, if you want in post your story on our site" we're saying "hey there fellas, if you want to play in our contest you have to use the same format that we are using."

[Vesnic]

Finally. A voice of reason.

[JJJ-thebanisher]

Alright, fair enough.

[donteatpoop]

lol.

It's all good though, JJJ. I'm interested in seeing what happens. I missed out on the last contest, sadly. Hoping I have more time for this next one.

[End Master]

You can still do your utopia story, there's plenty of "myths" about various utopias. Shangri-La for example.

EDIT: Really that's sort of the advantage of the Myth theme, it's general enough to combine with any of the other categories. I could still do "Bloodlines" if I wanted to. (Plenty of myths about a succession of gods, godkings, and heroes) Locke's unreliable narrator goes pretty well with Myth as well and I ready gave examples of how to combine the Looping and Utopia stories with Myth.

If everyone still goes with their original desire and just relates it to the myth theme, we'll probably get a wider variety of stories.

[xnull]

Didn't Katie just propose having no theme? Didn't people just suppose we should instead have a theme, because we are keeping to our traditions? Isn't having a theme were you can really pretty much do anything not really that much of a theme and the "periodic writing get together" that's been discussed instead?

Anyway, I had a particular idea in mind for the Utopia story. It won't go well with myth. Yeah, it's doable, but I'd rather not - I would have to reinvent it and restructure it and I'm pretty sure it'd be ruined.

The one good thing about the Myth theme is that I'll be forced to complete it. It's hard to stick to a theme without a conclusion.

I'll be competing, but not via a Utopia story underbelly.

[End Master]

But most of our themes have been general really. If anything they got more general as time went on. The first couple didn't have that many people competing in them, when the themes got a little more general more people started participating.

Having "general theme" is still a lot different than having "no theme" since we should at least have something to adhere to. Yes, it's loose, but it's not a complete free for all.

And as Usoki pointed out, we have a tendency to do whatever we want anyway regardless of the theme that was picked for these contests. I was merely pointing out that IF you really wanted to do your idea that wasn't selected, you could still do it, you just need to be creative in fitting it with the theme. If anything I'd say it would make you put more effort into it and cause it to stand out more which in turn would score you extra points.

[Hi! My name is: Katie]

OK, just for some finality and clarity. CYS entrants can post their stories on CYS but can't use any features that don't occur over here? Like Variables, Scripting or items? Right?

EDIT: I am still a little confused though, if extra features do not improve the product, why are they illegal on the basis that it's unfair? Regardless, it's your rules.

Actually, I'm confused too, because I didn't think anyone had ruled out CYS' special features. I missed that.

Personally, I like the idea of letting each side use the features at its disposal, but with the understanding that the features used will not impact judging. I'm not intimidated by their special features. Perhaps I should be.

Anyway, I support the decision however it falls. I'm just glad we might have more people in the next contest.

[End Master]

CYS has got a crapload of toys to play with, there's a few reasons why it would be better if they can't use them for this contest.

1. Again it's still going by IS standards, so basically if we don't have it, they can't use it either.

2. It's likely to annoy certain ISers if they create more of a "game" rather than a "story" and that's going to cause a drop in their scores. Conversely there may be a few CYSers that might find the IS entries rather "dull" since there won't be the extra scripting stuff which might cause a drop in our scores. If none of it's allowed then it cuts down on the possible biases.

3. It lets them focus more on pure writing rather than fancy tricks and they've had a few contests on there in the past where they didn't use any excessive scripting/inventory/etc. so this would just be like one of those contests, just with no room/page limit.